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Frank Varga / Skagit Valley Herald
Clair Brooks (right) a WWII vet from Mount Vernon, waves to motorists on the southeast corner of Riverside and College Way Wednesday during an anti-tax demonstration.

Caroline May

While the Internal Revenue Service has apologized for targeting Tea Party groups, a number still have not received their tax-exempt status. Some have not even heard back from the IRS.

According to lawyers representing some of these groups, Tea Party organizations have continued to face delays in their applications for 501 (c)(3) or 501 (c)(4) applications.

“The most extreme case we’ve got is a group called Tea Party Patriots that was filed in December 2010 and is still awaiting action by the Internal Revenue Service,” Alan Dye, a partner at Webster Chamberlain & Bean who specializes in non-profit organizations, told The Daily Caller.

Normally an application for this kind of status takes 9 months, Dye explained.

In the case of Tea Party Patriots, the IRS followed up with a round of questions the group responded to a year ago.

“Almost every organization that applies for (c)(4) status is engaged in attempting to affect legislation and public policy. That is no different for Tea Party Patriots. There is really no reason why this should occur,” Dye said.

Tea Party Patriots had authorized Dye to speak about the matter using their name — Dye said that he could not name the other groups he represents that had faced similar delays in processing.

The agent in charge of the Tea Party Patriots case has not responded to calls from the group’s lawyers since the IRS revelation on Friday.

Heidi Abegg, senior counsel at Webster Chamberlain & Bean, added that she knew of two other groups that faced similar delays, both of which ultimately withdrew their applications.

“For the one, the wait was just too long,” she explained. “The other one, it had been so long they decided to just dissolve rather than to spend money to keep it open.”